Thanks, it’s my own recipe. I use cheddar cheese instead of water.

Hi everyone! I've been meaning to blog all week but time has really managed to get away from me. And anyway, it's all been pretty quiet in Clackett Towers, with the exception of the quite ridiculous soaking I got on Monday when Nic and I were doing an errand for my dad in Coventry. Exciting times, I has them.

It has been a good week, though. For one thing, the cold weather and the snow finally did one, so I was able to stop wearing wellies and a frajillion layers (and that's just what I had been wearing in my house.) Leamington looked reliably beautiful in the snow, but I had no real interest in it. I didn't go sledging or build a snowman or make a snow angel, and I was fine with that. I didn't even really take any snow photos. But I did go out in it, and here's a very outdated outfit shot from a snowy day in Leamington:

 

Sunday 20th January - Colette Patterns Three Sisters Peony dress, Hard Hearted Harlot 'Reply' boots and vintage bowler hat

This dress is a good example of the importance of perspective and distance. You might remember from my original post on it, it took me ages to finish this dress because of my fitting issues with Peony. So when I finished it I felt a bit like 'yeah, it's fine, I'll probably wear it.' I was a bit underwhelmed. When I wore this a few Sundays ago, however, I felt awesome in it. The fit is so much better than I had given myself credit for, and I liked the whole outfit so much that I wore it again yesterday. It is good to give yourself a bit of distance from finished objects - especially if they caused you some stress in the making - to really appreciate them. All of that said, I don't regret giving my Peony pattern away. It's a lovely wee dress and all, but two is enough, even for a serial pattern-repeater like me.

And, while I'm on the subject of sewing, the other thing that has been occupying my time recently has been volunteering for a local charity. Action 21 is based in Leamington and promotes sustainable living and I've become involved in their new skill-share programme. Last Saturday I spent the day teaching a group of lovely ladies how to make their own knickers! This was exciting and enjoyable, especially as actually teaching is the bit of teaching that I miss. I was so proud of all of my students - every single one of them went home at the end of the day with beautiful handmade pants. The other fun thing was that me and the workshops were featured today in the Coventry Evening Telegraph:

I honestly never thought I'd be in the paper with my knickers on display.

I was interviewed over the phone, which was fine. And then the photographer came out to take the photos which, due to time constraints, had to be taken AT WORK. So here's me in a meeting room at work with my underwear. The meeting rooms have glass walls, too. Thank feck no-one walked past. Anyway, the whole thing was very entertaining and if you'd like to read the article, you can here. I'm so glad the workshop was a success, and I'm really looking forward to running some more in the near future!

Now, to celebrate my success and my new-found fame as Coventry's number 1 pants-brandisher, as well as the fact that I have tomorrow off, I'm away to the pub.

They used to call me The Chameleon. Because of my slender frame and my big, wet eyes.

Hello all! The snow has gone, and it's a positively balmy 9 degrees celsius. This feels almost luxuriously... well, not warm, but not cold. I don't think I had realised just how much the cold weather was getting to me - being able to walk around my flat without a million layers on feels like such a treat. It's definitely not warm enough yet to start wearing those lovely strappy dresses I've beens sewing, but they certainly seem less ridiculous now that the snow has all melted away.

I have been busy sewing again this past week, this time with an all-new pattern. Eliza of Eliza M Vintage Patterns  contacted me over the Christmas holidays to see if I would be interested in reviewing one of her patterns. This was exciting because, after seeing Handmade Jane's lovely Ruby dress in December, I had been eyeing these patterns up. I chose the Eliza dress:

I'm sure it's pretty obvious why I chose this one...

Eliza M patterns are single-sized and, based on my bust measurement, I went for the 12. Eliza tells me that she's working on getting the patterns graded so that she can sell multi-sized patterns, which is good for those people who are between sizes. But lazy old me, I like the fact that this is single sized. There was less cutting to do! The pattern itself comes in an A4 cardboard envelope and the pattern pieces are in a cellophane bag - a bit like the bags that comics come in - which is nice because it's easy to keep everything all together. It also reminded me that I bought a box of those comic envelopes for just that reason last year, so I should get on with sorting through my patterns.

On Thursday evening, I got my fabric and pattern out when I got home from work and got down to it. I had a really pretty hot pink polka dot cotton that had been a gift from my dear friends Lauren and Rick on my last birthday. I had ear-marked it for a strapless party dress from Gertie's book, but I decided it would be put to better use on this dress, which is more wearable.

The pattern itself is very simple - the bodice has two darts with all-in-one armhole facings and the skirt is a full circle skirt. In the interests of a proper review,  I really should have followed the pattern exactly but I decided not to. Both the bodice and the skirt have centre back seams but the pattern calls for a side-seam invisible zip. I don't like side-seam zips unless they're there so the print on the back isn't broken by seam-lines, but this isn't an issue here. And I just don't especially like invisible zips. So I decided to move the zip to the centre back and just use an ordinary old zip. To my mind, this is more 'vintage' as well as being easier, but I suppose that's a judgement call.

UPDATE: It turns out I'm a bit of a dick and I misread the pattern. It's a centre back zip. I was obviously having an attack of the derps when I read the instructions. SIGH. Anyway, centre back zip FTW, but I'd still rather a lapped zipper to an invisible one.

Eliza M's website says that this pattern would be suitable for beginners. While I can't disagree that the construction itself is pretty simple, I think the instructions could do with being a lot more detailed. The instructions for attaching the facing really confused me - even though I had used this method before! (it's the same method for attaching the facing inside the Colette Rooibos dress) Part of this is definitely down to the fact that I was tired and a bit cranky on Thursday night, but I definitely had to unpick and re-do more than I usually would. The pattern itself is lovely but for £12.50, a pattern by Sewaholic or Colette have much more comprehensive instructions.

Anyway - the dress itself is just lovely! Once I stepped back a bit and remembered what the eff I was doing with the facings, the construction was very smooth, and I love the finished dress:

 

The Eliza dress

As you can see, I decided not to gather the neckline to create a sweetheart shape. This is at least partly because I was a bit baffled by the instructions on how to do it - but it's mainly because I like the shape of the neckline as it is. I don't like anything that is too low-cut and fear that pulling this down slightly would result in more cleavage on show than I am comfortable with. The only other change I made was to put two small darts in the back neckline to try to reduce the slight gape there. I think when I sew this pattern again I'll need to take a bit of width out of the top of the back. I'll spare you the back view, though. 

 

Bodice view - we took the photos in the Arboretum where it was nice and warm!

Despite my slight fitting issue with the bodice back, I'm really happy with how the front of the bodice fits and I like the straps, they're a nice width and in a comfortable place. I really love the length of the skirt as well - with a narrow hem the length is just over 26in so perfect for wearing over a fluffy petticoat! Although now I will have to buy an extra fluffy black one to wear underneath this frock. 

It also looks good with cat-eye sunglasses and JJ Abrams style lens flare

I'm really happy overall with this dress. I know I'm basically sewing to a theme, here - I love dresses with a fitted bodice and a full skirt, but this is what I wear! I'll definitely be making more Eliza dresses - this is what counts as cake in my wardrobe. Despite my reservations about the pattern, I would recommend this pattern to confident seamstresses. None of the techniques are difficult, but you need to be confident enough to work your way through the instructions. I would buy another Eliza M pattern, as well. Right now I fancy the Betty dress pattern.

 

You all bored of retro-style dresses yet? OH WELL.

And speaking of sewing and polka dots - want to know who won the green polka dot mystery fabric? Eh? I don't have one of those whizzy pictures of the randomiser, because I couldn't figure out how to get it to work. So I counted up all the entrants and got Nic to choose a number at random. And the winner is CARLY. Carly, email me with your address and I'll get the fabric out to you as soon as I can, with a few little surprises in there, too!

Next up is some unselfish sewing in the shape of a dress for my fabulous friend Lucy, using Butterick B5748 and Michael Miller Olive Atomic fabric. I'm hoping to make that this week as sewing in the evenings after work makes a crappy work-day feel much less depressing! 

I'll be back later in the week to tell you all about the knicker-making workshop I taught this weekend, and to share some belated snow pictures. Until then, my dears!

The only thing better than a cow is a human! Unless you need milk. Then you really need a cow.

Evening all! Gosh it's cold. So cold. I've been home for two hours and I'm only just starting to warm up despite my many layers including leg warmers, my hot water bottle and a duvet on the sofa. I love my flat, but I really REALLY hate being cold. It's too cold even to sew, and I have lots of fun sewing projects waiting for me. BOO! Luckily it's not too cold to crochet so I am keeping my hands busy while bundled up on the sofa.

I'm having a busy week at work, and with it being too cold to do much in the evenings, I don't have much craic. I had a quiet weekend, too. The snow is beautiful, but I like it soooo much better from indoors. We have a great view of snowy Leamington from the flat so I spent basically the entire weekend staying warm indoors. I didn't throw a single snowball, and I didn't make a snow angel. I'm fine with that. I did buy a new coffee maker, though. So there's that. My much beloved one died last year and I bought a cheapo one that sucked. It could only make one cup of coffee no matter how much water or coffee you put in it, and you had to fill the filter right to the top to get more than a sad cup of warm brown water. So I bit the bullet and upgraded, so my weekend was joyously caffeine-filled. Hurrah!

On Saturday afternoon, post-Nana photoshoot, Nic and I headed into town to do some afternoon drinking in Wilde's. It's nice and cosy in there. It had snowed, but the Parade was clear, so I felt safe enough in shoes rather than wellies...

 

Vintage dress from a secondhand shop in Paris, cardigan from H&M, Jonathan Aston tights and Poetic Licence Backlash shoes

I suppose the Parisian theme of my morning put me in mind of this dress, which I bought in a 'fripes' in Montmartre when Nic and I visited Paris in 2010. I reckon this dress is just about 'vintage' in that it must be from the 80s. It's arguably hideous, but I love it. Like, it's LOUD. I love the way the skirt kicks out, and the shape of the bodice, and the little pockets! As you can probably tell from this photo, I was feeling pretty cold and pulling faces in between takes. Nic complained that I rearranged my face before he pressed the button, so I obliged him. THIS is what I look like most of the time:

 

DYEEEEERRRRRRP

It was a gorgeous afternoon. We had drinks with friends before coming back to the flat and settling in with a bottle of cava and a film. The older I get, the more I just want to hibernate when it gets cold. But there were some signs of spring, all the same...

 

Daffodils in Wilde's

Now I'm going to get these cold hands back underneath the blanket. Night!

Yeah, Jack. I know you fell asleep on top of her in Paris. In Paris, FRANCE.

Hi everyone! It's Sunday morning (just about) and I'm chilling in bed, watching the snow falling outside and listening to a CD called Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioners and it's all pretty sweet. Every so often, a snow day is good for the soul.

Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post with suggestions for good weepy films. In the end, after a relaxing working at home day on Friday, I started to feel a lot less tense. But I'll keep that list in mind anyhow. I'm an emotional gal, that'll come in handy one of these days I'm sure.

I haven't done any sewing this weekend - or indeed, much of anything past drinking cava and watching DVDs - but I did manage to finally get some photographs of my latest finished garment, my Bernie Dexter knockoff dress. For those of you asleep at the back, here is the dress in question, ably modelled by Bernie herself:

 

Bernie Dexter Parisian Cafe picnic dress

As I explained previously, I have been after this dress for a while after falling hard for my Jessica dress. Still, £120 for a cotton dress is definitely out of my budgetary comfort zone! I had a wee bit of extra money around Christmas due to a generous gift and I did briefly consider just treating myself to it, even though it wasn't on sale. After all, I paid full price for my Bettie Page Captain dress, and I have never regretted that. Common sense prevailed, though. I knew I'd love the dress, but I wouldn't £120 love it. Does that make sense? I knew also I'd get more enjoyment out of making it than buying it, so there was that too.

I bought 3 metres of Michael Miller Paris Ville fabric from Frumble. That sounds like a lot for this dress and I did end up buying a bit too much, but I was being cautious. Rather than the print running horizontally from selvedge to selvedge, as you'd usually expect with a fabric like this, it runs vertically so the whole thing needed to be cut crosswise. I just want to say a quick word here about Frumble, too. It turned out that there was a slight issue with my order - there was 3m of fabric in stock, but part of it had been cut so it wasn't a continuous 3m length. I got a lovely detailed email from the owners, describing exactly what the fabric was like and offering me a refund if the order wasn't suitable. I went ahead anyway because I knew I'd have enough, but I was really impressed by the detailed email - lots of other companies would just cancel the order without giving you the opportunity to decide for yourself. I've shopped with Frumble before and I definitely will again!

Coming so soon after the Honolulu Baby dress, I knew exactly what I was doing with this dress and it came together in just a few hours. I made a few small changes - the skirt is slightly longer, and I shortened the straps considerably. I also ignored the directions for attaching the straps and the lining and did it my own way - which is to say, the ends of the straps are all sandwiched between the lining and the shell so it's much neater! I hemmed by hand as usual, and was able to use the detail of the print to give the hem a pretty border, too. 

 

The Nana dress

As the snow forced me indoors for photos, I thought I'd take advantage of the warmth and privacy and experiment a bit. I'm no Bernie Dexter, here's another pin-up attempt! I decided I didn't want to keep calling this dress a knock-off, so went with the Paris theme and called her Nana, after the eponymous heroine of Emile Zola's 1880 novel. SPOILER, but Nana herself meets a tragic end, dying of smallpox. But still, I love the Rougon-Macquart novels. Zola is straight-up one of my favourite writers, so it seemed fitting to name a Parisian-themed garment in his honour.

Anyway, there are some differences between my dress and the Bernie Dexter dress. For one thing, the Bernie Dexter dress has the bodice constructed in four pieces - the front of the dress has two pieces, which you might be able to see if you squint. I didn't do that because I didn't want to break up the lovely pattern:

This picture of the bodice doesn't really do it justice - I hate having my photo taken up close so I'm hunched over a bit, causing a wrinkle underneath the bust that isn't there when I am standing up! I wanted to include it though so you could see that the pattern isn't broken up by an additional seam.

I lined the bodice with some pale pink polka dot cotton because why not. Secret polka dots are still polka dots:

As you can see, I didn't line the skirt because I'll probably mostly wear this with a petticoat, so it seemed easier not to. Hemming the dress was really easy because of the way the pattern is composed. I made the pink paving stones the border of the dress and turned the hem up accordingly, and catch-stitched it by hand. This is one of those details that makes a garment look hand-made, I think, but I love the way it looks. I haven't had a close look at the Bernie Dexter original, but my Bernie Dexter dress has a very narrow, machine-stitched hem. It's fine, but I think this is much nicer:

 

Hem detail

With this make, I meant to move the straps in a bit at the back to cover my bra straps and I totally forgot! Again, as with the Honolulu Baby dress, this isn't much of a problem because in reality I will mostly be wearing this with a cardigan, or with a strapless bra. Or with those bra-trap things! The bra I was wearing in these photos has cream straps with sage-green at the back so it looks fine from the front but is more noticeable in the back view. Ah well.

 

So this is what it's come to, Roisin. Putting pictures of your bra on the internet. YOU STAY CLASSY, MULDOON.

Still, even with that very minor flaw, I am 100% delighted with this dress. Like, really. I know I would have loved the Bernie Dexter dress if I had bought it, but I wouldn't have loved it as much as this. I wouldn't have felt inspired to do this, for example:

That's right. I am wearing a beret. SO FRENCH. I had to pose with a Zola novel and although I do have a copy of Nana, I bought this copy of La Bete Humaine from a bouquiniste somewhere along the Seine the first time Nic and I went to Paris together, in 2008. La Bete Humaine is one of my favourite of Zola's novels, and although I don't read French well enough to read this, it does have Jean Gabin on the cover. So it's a stunt book, but fuck it. It has Jean Gabin on the cover, that's good enough for me.

 

I also posed with a Laduree carrier bag that's a souvenir from our visit in 2010, but I looked way too derpy, so here's another one with Jean.

It's definitely too cold to wear this just now, but I am super excited about wearing it in Paris in April. I don't care that it will make me look like a twatty tourist, I really don't. It's a lovely, comfortable and cute sundress, perfect for holidays. And the people on the dress are bloody fabulous...

 

Here are a couple of well-dressed Parisiennes. I like to think they're looking at the Eiffel Tower and agreeing that "it was tolerable before, but with the light show at night it's now hideous, just hideous."

 

This woman has dyed her poodle to match her dress, which makes me think more of The Capitol in The Hunger Games than of Paris.

 

Paris is for lovers. Not sure the man in the hat agrees.

 

This is totally going to be me in April

 

I love this bit. It reminds me of our last night in Paris in 2012, sitting outside the Cafe Saint Jean on the Rue des Abbesses, listening to a jazz manouche band playing and drinking red wine.

So, my own 'make this look' turned out pretty well. Including the cost of the pattern, which I have halved because I used it twice, this dress cost £45 to make. It took about 6 hours in total. So that's still not cheap, and I can understand to some extent why the Bernie Dexter equivalent costs £120. That's still a considerable saving, though, especially when you consider that the 6 hours of sewing were 6 hours when I wasn't shopping! (ha ha joking, but not really). Yay to doing it for yourself!

 

Can I put a jumper on now?

Now I'm off to scout out what other awesome repro dresses could be recreated by my own fair hands! 

A great wine is like a great woman; always intoxicating, ever-surprising, and only getting better with age.

Hello all, and can I say a massive THANK FECK at getting to the end of this week? It has not been super-enjoyable. Nothing seriously bad has happened, or anything like that, I've just been feeling really out of sorts. It's partly having been ill, and I think it's partly just a bit of a January slump. When I remind myself to be positive, I can be. I've been sewing a lot, because it's a good distraction and I enjoy it. But a lot of the time I've really had to jolly myself along and there have been more than a few occasions when I've wanted to get into bed and not get back out until the spring. I have that tight, heavy feeling in my throat and chest like I need a good cry. So I think over this weekend I'm going to watch a big old weepy and get it out of my system. Any recommendations for me?

Anyway, genuinely sorry to moan - it just helps sometimes to get these feelings out. As I said, I have been sewing lots and I finished my Bernie Dexter knockoff dress! I need to think of a better name for it, and I need to photograph it still, but it's great and I will post about it soon. And, this week hasn't been totally terrible or anywhere close. I'm working from home tomorrow, so I don't have to go anywhere in the snow. I'm going to curl up and be cosy all weekend and try to get my sparkle back.

So, an outfit from last weekend. This is what I wore on Sunday after I finished modelling my Honolulu Baby dress:

 

Bettie Page Rita dress in rust, spotty tights from Untold at House of Fraser and Escape Boutique by Zoe Greenhill shoes

As I said in my previous post, I bought this lovely Bettie Page dress from Helen at Pinup Parade. She tweeted a picture of it in December and I reserved one in my size, I knew I'd love it! I already have the Rita dress in green, so I knew I'd wear another one...

 

Rita dress in green - photo from 11th March 2012

I bought the green Rita dress from Pinup Parade as well, as a little birthday present to myself when I turned 29. Not only was the price right - at £65, Pinup Parade stocks these dresses considerably cheaper than elsewhere - but each time I have ordered something from Helen she's been extremely helpful. This isn't a sponsored post or anything, and I haven't been given any enticement to write it, but I like to support excellent small businesses when I can!

Anyway, I really love both versions of the Rita dress and the colour is especially spectacular in the rust one. It's hard not to feel like Joan Holloway when you're sashaying down the corridor in either of these dresses! I love Bettie Page dresses in general; I have a nice little collection of them now and I'm always impressed by the quality and design. So, I heart repro, basically.

That's the length and breadth of my thoughts for this evening. Again, don't forget that if you'd like to win some mystery polka dot fabric, leave a comment on this post before midnight GMT on Saturday 19th. I'm off to eat pizza and watch a cop show because WE'RE THE SWEENEY AND WE HAVEN'T HAD OUR DINNER.

I am a sinner who does not expect forgiveness. But I am not a government official.

I wouldn't necessarily describe myself as contrary, but the fact that we're knee-deep in winter now is bringing out my contrary side. I just don't really enjoy winter fashions and it's about this time of the year, when Christmas is over and it starts to get really cold, that I start to seriously yearn for the spring. I do try not to wish my life away, genuinely, but I am starting to get tired of layers.

Which is perhaps why I spent Thursday and Friday evenings sewing a tropical sundress. Yes, while it snowed outside, while my fingers were going blue with cold (my sewing machine is set up by our living room window which is single-glazed) I was there, sewing my little heart out making a strappy sundress out of flamingo-print fabric. Sometimes people say you should dress for the job you want, not the job you have - and I suppose I was applying this logic to the weather. HAH. Not really. I just don't have a great deal of interest in sewing wintery clothes.

This make was a test-run for my Bernie Dexter knockoff dress. I wouldn't strictly call this a wearable muslin, because I did tissue fit the bodice first. It was more to get an idea of the construction and to get my head around what I'd need to do when cutting into my much more expensive Michael Miller fabric. The pattern I used was New Look 6886:

So far, so frumpy, right? Aw not really - what you've got there is a good basic sundress pattern. It's just that the model looks like she's not-so-secretly raging about the fecking hideous shoes they've put her in for this shoot. She's looking straight down the lens all "You think this is funny I WILL CUT A BITCH." Honestly, I never would have looked at this pattern if it hadn't been for Sewing Through The Motions' post on it. Lookit how cute HER dress turned out! The skirt part of this pattern is cut on the bias, so I knew it wouldn't be suitable for what I had in mind. With that said, I did spend some time tossing and turning on Wednesday night over whether I should just use the skirt pieces anyway because don't I already have enough dresses with full, gathered skirts. Does anyone else do that, by the way? Lie awake at night plotting about sewing, or fretting about it?

Anyway, in the end I decided to go with the gathered skirt. The Bernie Dexter dress I wanted to emulate has one, as does my gorgeous Bernie Dexter Jessica dress:

Bernie Dexter Happy Valley Jessica dress

I wear this dress a LOT, so figured another couple of dresses like this wouldn't hurt. Also, I wanted to be able to wear a petticoat underneath it if the situation demanded. I measured the length of this skirt and the width of the skirt front hem, drew a rectangle from those measurements (with seam allowance added) and swapped that in for the bias cut skirt from the pattern. That's the only change I made and followed the rest of the instructions almost to the letter because I wanted to see where that would take me.

The construction of the bodice is very simple and calls for it to be fully lined. I had the exact right amount of this pink cotton left from lining my Calamity Jane dress so I was able to use that. I found that very pleasing because it added an extra layer of frivolity to the fact that I was making a dress with flamingos on it:

 
 Apologies for the blurry photo - it was pretty dark when I photographed this! I did have another photo with the bodice unzipped but stupid photobucket refuses to let me rotate it and it's in the wrong orientation. Ah well!

The bodice is all pretty straightforward, with four darts in the front and none in the back. I taped the neckline at the front and back as the flamingo polycotton was pretty thin. I went against my instincts when attaching the straps, though, and followed the instructions. These have you sandwich the straps between the shell and the lining at the front but then hand-sew them down at the back, outside the lining. I appreciate that this is probably so that you can adjust the length - which I did indeed need to do - but in my opinion it's malarkey and it looks a bit crappy. I'll do the straps my own damn way when I make my Paris Ville one. Other than that, there was no messing with this dress at all, which is just how I like it!

 

Honolulu Baby dress - worn with Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes and a vintage handbag with fish on it!

I decided to call this the Honolulu Baby dress. I'm not sure if you even get flamingos in Hawaii; probably not, but so what. Also, this song was in my head the entire time I was sewing it:

ALOHA! Baby's here!

Now, I put this on to be photographed on Sunday (before I got sick) and, while I wasn't completely freezing in these photos because I was standing in a sunny patch, I just want to say that obviously I didn't go around in a strappy sundress with bare legs all day! These photos are for illustrative purposes only. I changed into something warmer immediately afterwards. You can see my bra straps sticking out a bit, too. I did think about putting a strapless bra on, but decided that as I don't really like strapless bras (because, duh) I'd most likely wear this with a bra, so I wanted to see how the straps would interact. It's okay at the front but less so at the back:

And this is after Nic adjusted the straps for me! To be honest, visible bra straps don't bother me hugely on a sun dress - and, in this country, I'm likely to wear this with a cardigan most of the time anyway. That being said, for the Paris Ville dress I will move the straps in a bit on the back bodice and maybe even invest in some of those bra trap things. As you can see, I did a lapped zip because I like them, and it seemed to fit in with the vaugely vintage-kitsch-tiki feel of the print.

I didn't put a petticoat on underneath for these photos because I couldn't really be bothered, but I will probably mostly wear this with one. I think it looks equally good without, though! To make good on my Pat Butcher Earrings promise, though, I put on my largest earrings:

Admittedly not Pat Butcher style dazzlers, but loud and mad all the same, and a gift from Lauren!

Of course, I couldn't model this without a sad attempt at channeling my inner pin-up, but please be aware that I KNOW I look ridiculous, and I was feeling pretty rough at this point:

 

If it's any consolation, I do know that I'm a complete and utter dick... I just don't care all that much.

All in all, I think New Look 6886 was a worthwhile investment. I like the shape of the bodice a lot, and with a few tweaks the fit will be comfortable and flattering. With the gathered skirt like this it's perfect for my go at the Bernie Dexter dress, and maybe at some point I'll use the pattern pieces provided for the bias-cut skirt. Well, perhaps. I'm not terribly keen on that idea, if I'm honest, I don't know why. I like the way circle skirts feel on but usually bias cut skirts get on my wick because they cling.

It's going to be a reasonable amount of time before it's not too cold to wear this dress, but still. I enjoyed the hell out of sewing it and I really do adore the fabric. It's ticking all the me boxes - colourful, fun, ridiculous print. I'm sold, and I have a little list of what I need to do on the real thing to get it right. Not a bad way to spend a few hours, right?

If you ain't had dessert, don't. Al's broke out the peaches.

Hola friends and neighbours! I hope you're toasty warm wherever you are and that the recent snow isn't limiting your movements too much (to my readers in the northern hemisphere. To all you lovely Aussies, hope you're enjoying the sunshine!) I was ill yesterday and today and forced to stay at home which was good because I didn't have to go out in the snow, and not so good because: ill. It was a lot more fun watching the snow from my bedroom window than it would have been to go out in it.

Anyhow, I wanted to remind you all that if you're interested in winning some of that mystery green polka dot fabric, you have until Saturday to leave a comment telling me what you'd make with it. I also wanted to say thanks for all of the kind and helpful comments on my New Look 6000! I didn't mean to give the impression that I don't like it, or that I'm not proud of it, or even that I won't wear it. I definitely will, and I do like it a lot. However, one of the strange things that comes with sharing part of my life online is feeling that I always need to qualify things. If I didn't have a blog I'd probably just wear the dress and not be in a hurry to point out its imperfections, because why would I? However, when you put yourself out there you open yourself up to these kinds of criticisms. This doesn't bother me - without criticism you'd never improve. But at the same time, I feel the need to get out in front of the imperfections in my handmade dresses so I don't get a lot of eye-rolling "Bitch PLEASE" type reactions. I guess it is just hard to strike the balance between saying "Look, I know it's not perfect" and being pleased with the final product all the same.

Apologies for the wall of text, there, I just wanted to say that I do like my dress! I have put the pattern away for now, as there are other sewing projects demanding my attention at the moment, but I will revisit it before long. It's really too cute not to.

So anyway, despite the cold weather and illness, I had a very pleasant weekend. I had my hair cut on Saturday morning and Nic and I ran some errands in town. It was cold and dismal, so after doing some shopping we holed up in the flat with snacks, a blanket, and the end of season 3 of Deadwood to finish. That was great because I have been so enjoying rewatching the show, but man is it emotionally draining!

Moxia Aloha dress, Sourpuss Swallow cardigan and Hard Hearted Harlot 'Reply' boots

I can't tell you how much I love this dress. I bought it last year from 52 Greek Street (which is one of my all-time favourite shops. I wish it had a website so you guys could shop there too, but it's good for my bank balance that they don't.) It's by their own brand, Moxia, and is made from Alexander Henry 'Aloha' fabric. The fit is absolutely spot-on - so much so that I am planning to trace the bodice to use as a bodice block. I know that's sort of cheating, but it's very simple - no back darts and just bust darts in the bodice. So at some point over the next few months I'm going to make my own version of this dress.

Before I left to go to the salon, the postie arrived bearing a dress I'd bought online a few days earlier and had managed to totally forget about. So although I had paid for it, it momentarily felt like a present. I know that's sad, isn't it?

 

Bettie Page "Rita" dress in rust - I bought this from the wonderful Pinup Parade after having reserved one in my size in December. I can't say enough good things about the shop, either - the owner, Helen, is so helpful and friendly!

Anyway, I enjoyed getting a dress in the post because after I had paid for it earlier in the week, I put myself on a shopping ban. I'm not going to buy any clothes or shoes between now and the end of April, when Nic and I will be going to Paris. This is to save money for our holiday - we're going to be there for a week, so we'll need plenty of euros for all of the cheese and wine and bread I plan to consume! It's also because I have a lot of clothes and shoes, and because I am an emotional shopper. I'd say on the whole I buy things that I wear and that suit my lifestyle, but I have a lot of choices now so taking a break for a few months won't hurt a bit. This doesn't apply to fabric but I have to sew through my stash before I look to buying any new fabrics. I don't have a huge stash, and I have a pattern in mind for each piece of fabric I have, so I can't imagine this will hurt too much. Anyway, I think by the time I've worked my way through it, it'll be April, and I'll be able to fabric shop in Paris. Hurrah!

I am making headway in working through my stash, and was busy sewing over the weekend - check back with me later in the week to see what I made!

How am I lookin'? Good! I'm lookin' nice! My hair is nice; my suit is nice; I'm lookin' really nice.

So, while it was brilliant being home for a few weeks and everything, I found that I really missed my sewing machine. Like, really. I think I might have to persuade my mum to invest in one! So when I got back to Leamington last weekend I was very keen to get straight into making something, and decided it was time to have a go at New Look 6000. I bought the pattern back in September or October from the fabric stall in Coventry market, and it was £2.99. Having seen so many adorable versions of it all across the sewing blogosphere I was keen to give it a go, but in the interim other things got in the way. But anyway, it seemed like a good sewing project to kick 2013 off with so on Sunday afternoon while Nic was working, I cut my fabric out and got going.

 

The fabric I used is a pea-green polka dot mystery polyester fabric I bought from one of the stalls in Birmingham Rag Market at the meetup in November. To be honest I’m not usually a fan of this slippery fabric but I liked the colour and the price, £2 per metre, and thought I’d be able to use it for something. I love the colour, and naturally I love the pattern but otherwise this fabric is not the most enjoyable stuff. I probably wouldn’t buy a garment made from it. I can tell it’s going to be a bit sweaty. So think of this as a wearable muslin! I cut a size 12 and the pattern is very straightforward to sew – I made view E, which doesn’t have the collar or the side ruching, but does have the elbow sleeves with the excellent cuff. I think all in all there are only 5 or 6 pattern pieces and I got this mostly sewed up within a few hours. It’s very straightforward. I dived in without making any adjustments and found that I needed to let the side seams out a bit and that, typically, the back neckline gaped like flip. I wasn’t sure how to adjust this being as the back of the dress is just two pieces – there’s no waist seam – so I took a leaf out of Lizzy’s book and added a couple of darts to either side of the zip on the back neckline. I know this is probably an OMG SEWING CRIME but whatever. It worked, mostly.

 

I decided to call it the 'Polka Dot Problem' dress because, well, you all know how many polka dot dresses I have in my wardrobe already...

As you can see, the fit is okay but it’s not ideal. I think the 14 will be too big – and it will certainly be too big in the upper back! But this is something I’m happy enough to tinker about with at some date in the future. I’d also take Jane’s advice and raise the bust darts slightly as they’re quite low. And I’d probably use fabric that I liked a bit better.

 

All of that griping aside, I am pretty pleased with this make! If I’m totally honest, I probably won’t get tons of wear out of it. This is partly because this fabric frays like nobody’s business, and while I have secured the seams as best I can with lots of zigzag stitching, I think its longevity will be affected by this. I put a concealed zipper in and as you can see from the photos it’s not brilliant – but it’s what I had in my stash – and I have come to dislike them! Ideally I would take it out and re-insert it because it’s not the best insertion ever, but I’m not sure the fabric can take it.

 

So, you can see that the back needs some work! But that's fine for now.

But anyway, I was being positive, wasn’t I? It’s really cute! I really like how it looks on, and I love the colour, and I get a massive kick out of the sleeves and cuffs. I finished the cuffs with this little pearlescent buttons I had in my stash and I think they’re adorable. I also love love love the neckline. I have a couple of pencil dresses from ASOS with this high neckline and I really like it on me, even if it’s not the most flattering on a busty lady such as myself. So overall I think this frock is made more of win than of fail. Slightly. It does feel more like cake than frosting and I think we’ve all established that I am a frosting addict!

 

I love the cuffs on this make - and the buttons were in my stash

I am happy as well at having tried a few new things with this make. With the exception of when I took my chiffon bridesmaid’s dress up (I hated every minute of doing that) I haven’t really sewn anything with slippery fabrics – apart from lining, that is. This was a bit of a pain, but not as much as I might have thought. I’ve never really made a pencil dress since I’ve been sewing, so that’s a new thing, and I’ve never done cuffs. So all in all I think this is a good start to 2013.

 

SEWING SMUGFACE

All of that said, I’m done with this fabric and I have loads of it left. It’s 60 inches wide and I’d say I have about a metre and a half of it left. I know I haven’t made it sound like the most enticing prospect but I actually do think it would make a cute drapey top, maybe like Gertie’s Portrait Blouse or even a Sorbetto (although I’m not sure you could make bias binding out of this fabric) and I even think there’s enough to squeeze out another one of these! So I am going to give the remainder away to anyone who would like it. I’m not sure if I’ll have much interest but if you’d like it, leave me a comment with your email address and what you think you’d use it for. If there’s more than one comment, I’ll pick one at random. To sweeten the deal, I’ll put a few mystery presents in along with it! I’ll post anywhere. If I give you all until midnight GMT on Saturday 19th January to leave your comment.

Next up – more frosting. I have had my eye on this gorgeous Bernie Dexter dress for ever: 

 

Bernie Dexter Parisian Cafe dress

It’s very simple and I’ve known all along I could make my own as the fabric is Michael Miller Paris Ville, but I decided to wait until the sales to see if either of the UK retailers I know have it (Deadly is the Female and What Katie Did) would put it in the sale. £120 is far too much, but £60 is more manageable – especially when the fabric costs £12 a metre. But they didn’t and I was weirdly relieved that I had an excuse to make my own! So I did a sneaky google and saw that Sewing Through The Motions had had the same idea and used New Look 6886 to make her own, so I have taken her recommendation and bought the pattern. The dress itself has a slightly gathered skirt so I will probably do this too rather than use the skirt pieces from the pattern.

 

New Look 6886 - super frumpy pattern envelope, as per.

I’m going to test make the whole thing with this rather fabulous flamingo fabric that I bought on ebay. Again, this is a case of seeing something I like and making my own as Brighton-based boutique Dolly Dagger have their own brand dresses made from this fabric.

 

Dolly Dagger Waikiki dress - no longer available

But £120 for a wiggle dress made of fabric I know they bought in Fabricland for probably under £2.99 a metre? That sets off all my El Cheapo alarm bells, and they all say HELL NO. Also, having bought a Dolly Dagger own brand dress in the past I'm dubious about the quality. Sadly I missed out on getting this fabric for £2.99 from Fabricland as they’re out of stock but I found some on ebay for not much more, and it’s going to make a test run of my Bernie Dexter knockoff. Yes, I will look like Pat Butcher’s living room. No, I will not care. So that’s my weekend sorted!

I'm so gorgeous, there's a six month waiting list for birds to suddenly appear, every time I am near!

Hello loves! Half a week into being back at work and I am still having trouble readjusting to being back. Isn't that silly, but I suppose three weeks of almost complete indolence can have an effect on a person. I promise I will stop whining about having to go to work and everything, but I am still missing home. My relationship with Northern Ireland isn't complicated - I know I don't want to live there, but I still hate leaving. It's always a bit harder after Christmas as well, because I've been able to spend so much time with my family.

This Christmas was great because my younger sister had the whole holiday off as well, so we were able to spend lots of time together, and I spent ages just sitting around chatting and drinking coffee with my mum and dad. And, as those of you who follow me on twitter or instagram will probably know, Daddy solidified his hero status by reviving my long-deaded 2006 iBook G4. I bought it when I was doing my PGCE in 2006 and it died tragically last year when the socket for plugging in the power pack broke, so the battery wouldn’t charge. This was really annoying because I had only just bought a new battery and I knew that the computery bit of it was still working, it just couldn’t get power to it. The Apple shop said they’d charge £70 to even look at it, and that they probably wouldn’t be able to fix it anyway, and a local computer shop said they probably couldn’t fix it but even if they did, it would cost about £200 when they charged for labour and parts. So I stowed it under the sofa, reluctant to sell it for parts – just reluctant to part with it, really, because I am very sentimental and that wee computer and me had lots of good times together.

I found a video on youtube that detailed how to get the casing open to have a look inside, which I did. I don’t know WHY I did because I didn’t have any parts or even a soldering iron. So I put it back together. It’s as well I don’t have a soldering iron anyway, because I’m going through a clumsy phase and goodness only knows what havoc I could wreak with a hot stick. When my Dad came to visit in November he took the laptop away with him, convinced he could fix it. So that’s why, when I woke up on the 28th December, I found this little tableau in the kitchen:

Open-heart surgery in process on my mac. He had to go out and buy a new headlamp part-way through because his own headlamp failed. WHAT A GUY.

He didn’t watch the video – what use does a man like Eugene have for mere instructions? – he just busted her open using a razor blade to pry the casing apart. Well, but more gently than that. He discovered that the problem was that the top of the pin from the charger had broken off and become stuck in the socket, shorting out the power lead. So he put in a new socket using an old one from something else, he fixed the power thing because it was back to front (reversing the polarity, which made me chuckle big style) and put the whole thing back together! We had to take it apart once more to reattach the track pad (which I had detached the first time round) and to fix the little pulsing light that shows you the computer is on. But bam! I have a working iBook once again!

 

Hurrah!

It was almost like getting a new laptop for Christmas. So sorry for the boring IT story but I felt a bit bad for calling Daddy a nuisance in the last post when actually I think he’s brilliant.

So that was all very exciting, especially as I was able to assist by holding things when necessary, and by reattaching the track pad. Hurrah! So I’m not really too sad to be back, because I did get to spend lots of lovely time with my family. It always makes me feel very blessed.

Coming back to Leamington was okay, too. It wasn’t too cold, so the flat wasn’t absolutely freezing. Also, I came home to some extra Christmas and belated birthday gifts from Nic’s family – including a few metres of some absolutely gorgeous cotton lawn from my parents-in-law (destined, perhaps, to become a Colette Truffle, if I can figure out the fitting) and an amazing t-shirt from Dom as well as the box of chocolate penguins that my darling Lauren gave me before Christmas. I spent Saturday tidying the flat and taking the Christmas decorations down, broken up slightly by a coffee and cake date with friends, before some more friends came round to have dinner with us. And Sunday was all about the sewing

 

Fever Knightley dress and Escape Boutique by Zoe Greenhill 'Canape' heels

Well, not ALL about the sewing as I did some grocery shopping and went out for a walk. I haven’t worn this dress in a while but when I opened the wardrobe it was beckoning to me. It’s one of the few dresses in my wardrobe that I paid full price for but I think over the years it has proved its value because it’s smart and comfortable and unusual. These shoes are one of the pairs I bought when I was at home and they’re fab – Zoe Greenhill is an independent designer and it looks like she’s pretty influenced by Irregular Choice. These were for sale in three of my home town’s shoe shops, two of which also sell Irregular Choice and they’re a good budget option. I love the bow and the purple heel!

Anyway, Sunday was lovely. I spent a good few hours sewing New Look 6000 (it needed some adjustment) while Nic worked and then in the evening we curled up on the sofa and watched the last few episodes of Season 4 of Fringe. I’ll tell you more about the sewing in the next post when I’ve had the chance to photograph the frock!

They're all documented. Dennis Nielsen did the same, only I can draw better than him.

It feels like ages since I have posted but it seems that as I was on holiday, my brain was too. So, Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had very restful breaks. After three weeks on holiday, coming back to work today wasn't as horrendous as I had feared it might be, but I think January is still going to be pretty hideous. Ah well, I'll survive by making life as fun as possible outside of work, I suppose.

In any case, it was a wonderfully relaxed holiday with nothing to do except take endless photos of the dog and watch TV.

 

You definitely want to give me that shortbread, don't you?

I didn't go out for New Year's Eve, opting instead to drink cava, eat tasty Fivemiletown cheese and watch The Bourne Identity with Nic and my parents. It was perfect, and it meant I didn't have a hangover the next day and so I was able to enjoy a day out.

If you're from Northern Ireland, a visit to the Ulster-American Folk Park in Omagh is practically mandatory. It's a rite of passage to go on a school trip there, but it's one that I had somehow managed to miss. I mean, we went to Loughry College (a training school for farmers) twice, but WHATEVS. This is something I have long bemoaned so as it was mild and dry, off we went.

To be honest, I think I might have oversold it slightly to Nic, based on how it had been sold to me when I was at primary school. I promised him that we'd go back in time, then get on a boat, and then be in AMERICA. And that's not strictly how it happened. Not strictly.

We did have an excellent day. None of us were expecting the park to be as big as it was, and Nic wasn't prepared for how interactive it was. My Dad really enjoyed exploring all of the buildings and putting turf on every single fire and generally making a nuisance of himself at every turn. The museum is about Irish emigration to America in the 19th Century and the loose thread that connects it all is the story of Thomas Mellon, whose family emigrated when he was five years old. You follow a path through the park and around various buildings, some of which are reconstructions of buildings from the time but many of which are the original buildings, which have been moved to the park. That's pretty mind-blowing. It's great craic altogether. Some of the houses have volunteers dressed in period clothing (but not pretending to be in character, thankfully) and they're able to tell you specific details about each building as well as more general facts about life at that time. So that's really cool.

 

 Nic at the first cottage. This one was brought to the park from the foot of the Sperrins - a family of 10 people lived in this tiny cottage.

 

 Castletown National School

 

Eugene giving us a sermon from the pulpit of the Meeting House 

After you've gone round the 'old world' you end up at a mocked-up village. This isn't based on any one village, as far as I can tell, but it does have period shop fronts and you can even go into some of the shops! I think this was my favourite bit of the whole experience because I loved looking in the shop windows (yes, I know) and the shop fronts themselves are so pretty.

 

Nic on Ulster Street

You know I said Daddy made a nuisance of himself everywhere we went? This is him after he climbed behind the counter in the Post Office

Here I am in the doorway of the pharmacy

The village leads to the docks, where you can pick up your ticket in a building transported from Great Georges Street in Belfast, and board a ship to take you to Baltimore. This bit was amazing - the boat itself isn't moving or anything and it's only a small portion, but you can see what it was like for the many people who took the 8-12 week passage to America. This is even more sobering when you learn that between 1700 and 1900 over 2 million people from Ulster alone emigrated to America! The boat is pretty grim. Nic loved it, and we had an extra treat in the shape of my Dad's friend Bill who had joined us - he was a shipbuilder (he was involved in restoring The Amistad) so he was able to investigate the replica boat and tell us all about that, too.

 Off to Baltimore

 

Nic on deck 

 

and me on deck

 

Daddy testing out the accomodations

And when we got off the ship, we were in America! Admittedly it still looked a lot like Omagh, but the signs said we were in Baltimore, and then in Pennsylvania. I think by this stage I was feeling a bit tired and cold, as it made slightly less of an impact on me, but I did enjoy the log cabins that had been transported from Pennsylvania, and my Dad loved the big barn.

Daddy climbing the barn - being a nuisance, as usual

But he was pleased with himself when he got up there.

This two-storey log cabin is a replica of the one in Pennsylvania that Thomas Mellon's family built - there are still people living in it to this day

It was an absolutely brilliant day out - and they are in the process of expanding the park so I'd love to go back one day. And if you're in or visiting Northern Ireland and you haven't been before, you should definitely go. It's only £7 in!

It was a great day out, made even better by getting home and putting my pyjamas on. Which is what I'm off to do now! I'll be back later in the week, though, and hopefully with a new sewing project to show you all.